Shut Up and Drive
by oh-the-linsanity
Summary: "How hard could driving really be?" This is that time Korra parked Asami's car and hit a lamp.


Korra was really, really frustrated.

First off, Tarrlok was being _majorly uncool_ taking away all those innocent people's rights and shutting off the lights over in dragon flats. It was a cowardly move made by a cowardly man and she would have loved to see the look on his face when she punched him in the head with a couple of two-ton boulders.

Too bad Mako talked her out of that one.

Secondly, her friends were arrested. All three of them. For absolutely _nothing. _Team Avatar's first night out on patrol and 75% of them already had fresh mug shots. She'd have to go all the way back to Air Temple Island, get Tenzin, come all the way back, and demand her friends' rightful release because, like she said, Tarrlok was an incompetent, no good, dirty, political scheming _jerkbender. _Also known as: a goddamn fucking asshole.

Ugh. The nerve.

And lastly, to top off her night of horrendous troubles, the police told her she had to move Asami's car out of the middle of the street. It blocked traffic, apparently. Couldn't other people just…drive around it? Apparently not, which led to her troubles. There Korra was, sitting in the driver's seat for five minutes, and she had just figured out how to turn on the ignition and put it in drive.

Airbending was easier. And she couldn't even _airbend._

"Let's see…" she mumbled to herself, fingers ghosting over the controls. She let out some strangled whine as she looked at all the dials. "Why are there so many _things?"_

Behind her, she heard a few distant complaints that she needed to "go ahead and get a move on". Like that wasn't what she was trying to do for the past five minutes.

Korra took a deep breath. "Okay, here we go. My foot's on the brake…" she looked down and noticed that there wasn't one more pedal but _two. _Why on Earth were there three pedals!? There was the stop one and the go one…what was the third for? Turbo speed? She hoped…that would be pretty sweet.

_"Avatar Korra."_

She knew that voice. She was sick and tired of that stupid ass voice. "What," she ground out between her teeth. The light from the streetlamp was shadowed when he stood right next to her, leaning slightly into the driver's side.

"Get a move on. _Now." _ Tarrlok barked, clearly irritated. Good riddance.

"I'm _trying_," she snapped. "But, seeing as your head isn't screwed on right tonight," (or any night, but she kept that par to herself), "You may have forgotten that _I don't know how to drive_."

Tarrlok scowled. Ah, Korra loved it. "I'm not asking you to drive across the Earth Kingdom, I'm asking you to park the car in a legal spot down the road. That can't be too hard for the _Avatar, _now can it?"

Where were those two-ton boulders she had just set down moments ago?

However, Tarrlok seemed to have _some _sliver of humanity as he watched Korra fiddle around with all the buttons and knobs and sticks—she really had no idea what she was doing. Walking a few steps ahead of the car Tarrlok made a sharp whistle and gestured for a young member from his task force to come over. "You—you know how to drive?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Miss Avatar Korra here is incompetent when it comes to driving skills so if it isn't too much of a hassle—EEOW!" His unkind review of Korra's skills was suddenly cut off when Korra _accidentally _ put her foot off the brake and _kinda sorta _ ran over Tarrlok's foot. Except not accidentally. Totally on purpose.

Heh.

He bit out a string of curses before suddenly clamping his mouth shut, aware of where he was and thinking of the image he wanted to upkeep around his subordinates. "Get her off this road in five minutes, or I'm taking custody of the car."

Ugh. Korra really should have just run him down. Off a bridge. Into Yue Bay. Yeah, that sounded good.

However, the task force guy, only a few years older than her, was surprisingly nice. He gave her a quick "how-to", just enough for her to slowly cruise into first gear and maybe second gear to a safe part of the city where she could park the car. The only problem here wasn't that his instructions weren't clear, but that Korra had forgotten the second part of them halfway down the road away from the block.

Shit.

The road was all clogged up and she didn't see _anywhere _to park, so she decided to take a few unexpected turns down some _great _looking streets. (spoiler alert: they weren't great. She was lying.) After getting some reassuring leers from some petty gang members , Korra decided she'd had enough bullshit for the night, and that this car needed to go _faster._Which was the worst plan in the history of plans.

Remembering what the task force dude had told her, she tried shifting gears—and by some miracle got to second and then _third._ But she wasn't too sure she did it right because the car made these ugly noises and the tires were screeching and she _might _ have just run over something.

Okay this wasn't working, and she needed to park this thing. Like right now. Before she ran over a human being; 75% of Team Avatar was in jail, no need to make it 100%.

Finally, Korra found a decent lit street with all these cars parked on the side of the road. There was a nice big space at the end of the road, right in front of a fire hydrant! Wonder why no one thought to park there. Now all Korra had to do was shift back into first and park it, without hitting…the other…car.

Um.

Okay.

She managed to do it, but again, it sounded like something _broke. _ Coming near the spot she turned the wheel and drove crookedly into the space. There, all done! That wasn't so hard. But when she turned around, she saw that the back end of the car was still sticking out. Couldn't have that. Korra took another deep breath. How many times had she seen Asami park the car? _A million! _Or like, five. Same difference. Wasn't so hard.

She put the car in reverse (thank you task force guy) and tried backing out but, being the ever-enthusiast learner she was, her heavy foot kind of pressed on the gas a little too much. The bumper brushed against the front end of the other car parked behind her. Fighting a grimace, Korra turned around to inspect the damage. One little dent? Hardly noticeable! All she had to do was readjust, pull forward, and park right next to the curb.

Too bad that fucking lamp was in the way. Seriously, who puts lamps at the end of the street? Unbelievable.

She managed to put the car in park and turn it off, thank goodness. Getting out, Korra realized that the front of Asami's car was way more durable than the measly little lamp. Same with the back of the car, which virtually came out of the parking ordeal unscathed. "Nicely done," she mumbled to herself, just a little proud. Come on, after all the shit she'd been through today? This was impressive, thanks very much.

Now it was only a little walk to the pier where she'd hop a boat over to the island and clean up this mess, Avatar style (and councilmen style. Tenzin really came in handy, she'd admit). As Korra walked down the street, however, she noticed a little sign, and a small line of paint on the curb next to where she parked.

_No Parking_

Um, clearly, Korra just did. "Fuck that," she snorted and went on her merry way.

_—-_

_ "But how are we going to pay for all these parking tickets?"_

_Fuck. That sign was serious? Ummmm._

_Oh, Nevermind. Mako's covered it._


End file.
